1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automobile body structures and more particularly to upper body structures for automobiles. More specifically, the present invention pertains to automobile rear upper body structures.
2. Description of Prior Art
In automobile upper body structures, the front or rear corner portion includes a pillar structure extending upwardly from bottom and a windshield header extending transversely and connected at each end with the upper end of the pillar structure. The upper end of the pillar structure is also connected to an end of a roof side rail. Thus, in the upper corner portion, three structures are connected together.
The pillar structure is generally constituted by a pillar inner panel and a pillar outer panel which are welded together along their side edges to form a structure of a closed cross-section. Similarly, the windshield header is welded to the roof panel to form a structure of a closed cross-section. At the junction between the pillar and the windshield header, the pillar inner and outer panels are not welded along one of their edges but the edge of the pillar inner panel is welded to the windshield header and the edge of the pillar outer panel is welded to the roof panel. It will therefore be understood that in the junction the pillar structure has a cross-section which is open at one side so that there is a problem of decrease in rigidity of the body structure.
In order to solve the above problems in the automobile body structure, there is proposed by Japanese utility model disclosure No. 58-29571 to provide a reinforcement at the junction where the pillar structure, the windshield header and the roof side rail are connected together. According to the proposal, the reinforcement is disposed between the pillar inner panel and the pillar outer panel in such a manner that the reinforcement closes an opening which is formed at each end of the windshield header between the windshield header and the roof panel. With this proposal, it is possible to make the closed cross-section of the pillar structure to continue to the closed cross-section of the roof side rail so that the rigidity of the body corner portion can be increased.
The structure as disclosed by the Japanese utility model relates to the front upper body structure but it may be possible to apply the concept of this utility model to the rear upper body structure. It should however be noted that there is a roof structure of a type that is disclosed by the Japanese disclosure No. 58-18873. This type of roof structure is formed with a recessed groove extending along each side of the roof to provide a rain rail and the aforementioned reinforcement structure as taught by the Japanese utility model disclosure No. 58-29571 cannot be applied to the roof structure of this type.